Bambi Through the Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

I have two bright and shiny cards for you today to take your mind off the real world for a few minutes. I find it very comforting to make a card I know will bring cheer to someone and I feel very blessed to have a hobby that keeps my own spirits up while I'm being isolated. 

We are at the hallway point of the current Twofer Card Challenge and...oh, haha, "hallway point!" Another example of how one letter can change the entire meaning of a word! Anyfoo, I've made a Twofer to remind you that there is still a week to play along with our Spring Animals prompt!

I went a little outside-the-Easterish-animal box and chose instead to use this sweet baby fawn from Stampin' Up as the common stamp on both my card designs. (He's really quite ancient, but he's still a baby.)

Onefer

This is quite a layered and busy design for me, but I enjoyed putting it all together and I have to say, I think it's very schparkly and scrummy which is how a Christmas card should be! 

I used gold glitter paper as the first layer. On top of that you will find a white card that has been die-cut with a notebook edge die from The Stamps of Life. I stenciled said layer using Delicata gold ink and a Snowflakes die by Memory Box. On top of that you will find a vellum fish-tail banner with a gold heat-embossed sediment from GKW. To the right is the little baby fawn heat-embossed in gold onto a stitched MFT circle, which is backed with a larger circle whose edges were dipped in gold ink. 

If you look closely, you will see more tiny gold snowflakes falling around the fawn. Hammy did those for me. 🐹 I'm thinking if the economy really goes belly up I can use this card in lieu of a gold bar!!!

Challenges

• ABC Christmas: E=embossing; F=freebie; and/or G=gold.
• HLS March Challenge: Anything goes with dies.
• Krafty Chicks: Christmas.
• Memory Box #59: Glitter paper or glue.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• SSS Monday: Stencil fun.

Twofer

And wallah! For this design, I traveled forward from winter to spring to show you how stamps can be versatile and how to make two distinctly different designs! This time I heat-embossed the sweet baby fawn and sediment in copper e/p on a pretty linen panel. Using my Box O' Bits (BOB), I surrounded him with a spring Memory Box Cascadia Wreath cut from a green Brusho background. Then I cut out and paper-pieced each of the flowers from various Lindy Magical backgrounds. 

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Spring flowers.
• Paper Players: Spring flowers.
• Sweet Stampers: Easter or spring.

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I hope you'll take advantage of this time of isolation to play in your craft room and join the fun over at the Twofer Card Challenge! The challenge closes at the end of day on March 24th.

Speaking of spring animals, please enjoy your St. Patrick's Day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* 

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor. I'm off to check my corned beef cooking in the crock pot ~ yummo! Take care and be safe out there!! 

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

OLC and TFC

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you've had a grand start to the week which has now reached its apexible moment. Have you noticed that people around you, on social media, and on TV have started to delight in mentioning it's blankity-blank days until Christmas?! Sure I'm knee-deep in Christmas cards, but I still want to take a few more minutes to enjoy fall and the delights of Thanksgiving!

Wait. What? It's how many days??!! Just kidding. Relax. You know we always get everything done or do our best trying. Might as well relax while we do our best trying. Besides, as Hammy tells me ~ and wants me to tell you ~ working with paper and stamps and ink is so much easier when our fists and teeth are unclenched!

Onefer

For this one-layer card (OLC), I used a NBUS Inkadinkado wooden stamp with no name, but the number on it is 60-00332. I did a direct-to-stamp coloring technique using Memento markers, but after wards I felt it needed more definition, so I colored it with ancient twinkling Spica pens. Anyone remember those? The sediments were stamped with Delicata gold ink. The embossing folder is called "Stately."

Hammy went to town with the winking, which you can see a wee bit better in the closeup. You'll note he also glossified the ribbon, so IRL, it's uber schparkly!

Challenges

• CAS on Friday: One-layer card.
• Inkspirational: One-layer card.
• Less is More: OLC with winter flora.

Twofer

The panel on this card was made at the recent Indiana retreat when Brenda taught us the Tarnished Foil technique. When I saw that this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge was Oxidized Metal, I cut the panel in half in order to make two CAS cards to play along. But when I went to link the above card, I started looking at videos, and soon realized that oxidized metal is not the same as tarnished foil, even though the look can be very similar. Oops.

Not only that, but I realized I didn't use the "stamping" requirement! Gah! Anyone else have trouble with Brain Fog for a few days after the fall-back time change happens?!!

The best way for me to explain the Tarnished Foil technique is to refer you to Brenda or to this video: Tarnished Foil Technique. It's a lot of fun! The oxidized technique looks like a lot of fun, too, and I hope to give it a try before the CMU challenge ends. BTW, the vertical NBUS Thanks die is from Frantic Stampers.

Challenges

• Just Us Girls: Thanks.
• Rainbow Card Challenge: Metallic.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Thanks/Thanksgiving.

 

Threefer

Here's what I did with the other half of the metallic panel. The die cut sediment was a gift so I don't know who makes it. It was cut from white paper so I did a Ziggie wash to tone it down.

~~~

Nellie Notes

What's going on here, Miss Nellie? I toyed with the idea of not telling you what happened and letting you make up your own plot line, but then I realized the story is written all over her face. Both literally and in the look in her eyes!

What happened was, I went in the house for two minutes max. I came back out and Nellie was no longer sunning herself on the deck. I walked over to the side of the house, not there. I called her. No response. I was about to look in the last spot she could be when I heard a rustling behind me. I turned around and here she came squeezing out from under the dirty deck! 

Those spidey webs on her head were all over her back, but she shook them off before I could take the photo. For a little diva, she's quite a tomboy! This weekend we put lattice all around the edge of the deck so now she is free to run free! 

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Bleached by the Summer Sun

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you've had a fine fresh start to this first full week of August! Is it the Dog Days of Summer yet?  Let me go look that up for us because I know you're curious now, too. Well, yes, it appears those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are in the middle of the Dog Days, which are hysterically considered to be the hottest, driest days of summer from 3 July to 15 August. There is a ton of information online about the term, mostly having to do with Sirius. The star, not the radio station.

It's been a busy time again with friends and traveling, but I have a quick card epitomizing the colors of August for you. Not that the card was quick, but this post will be uncharacteristically quick, so no need to make a Sam itch and put your feet up.

This is another card front I made at the 2019 ESCR, this time using the Bleach Technique taught by Susan. It's another technique that I have tried in the past without much success, but this time it worked so much better and I love the result. Susan provided us with splashless bleach which had only a very faint smell of bleach, so it was very user-friendly. You want to use an inexpensive small paint brush to apply the bleach and remove the color.

The background was made by first smooching Brushos and letting it dry. The Harmony stamp from Penny Black was borrowed from Lolly. I added the MFT sediment and matting back at the Playhouse where Hammy could help with the choice of sediment and the color of the matting.

Challenges

• Seize the Birthday: Toppings: Flowers.
• Simon Says Monday: Bright and cheerful.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Anything goes.

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Schparkly Dragonfly

Hello Stamplings!

The first week of July is always filled with lots of fun, celebrations, happy mail, and calories! Thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes on the 2nd, the beautiful cards that are still pouring in, and special thanks to the ladies of the CAS Watercolor Challenge who surprised me with a tribute for my birthday! 💛 So clever and hilarious! Who knew entering the seventh decade could be so much fun?! Mwah! And then the festivities continued over the 4th of July as we got together with lifelong friends! #feelingblessed!

With all that, I haven't had the chance to make new cards. I'm afraid I also haven't had the chance to visit many of your blogs in what seems like forever. I apologize for that and hope to do better soon.

So today I am sharing a one-layer card that I started in May at the ESCR retreat. 

In January of this year, Lolly made and posted a card (which you can see here) using this "Oragami Dragonfly" by Carabelle Studios. I fell in love with Lolly's card and immediately purchased the dragonfly. (FYI: If you go to buy it, I noticed there are knockoffs out there with shorter wing spans so you may not get quite such a dramatic look.) I love dragonflies and I thought Lolly's image was spectacular, so I couldn't wait to CASE her. We both brought our stamps to the Retreat and she kindly took me through the steps.  (She did the same for Bonnie and you can see Bonnie's stunning Twofer dragonfly CASE here!)

Lolly created a paper towel background for her card, while I watercolor-smooched my background using mixed media paper and Distress Inks. After that, I simply followed her steps and I think it's best if I let her explain it to you as she did in her post here. 

I stamped the image in black and clear heat embossed.  The design is intricate, so using the black ink gives me all the details.  Heat embossing in clear sets the design.  If I used Versamark and black embossing powder, I would loose some of the detail.

I painted the image with metallic acrylic paints (green, light blue).  I used a water brush to dilute the paint as it was being added.  I stamped the image on my card front as well as on a second piece of mixed media paper.  Both were painted with the acrylics and then I used a damp paper towel to lightly swipe over top to enhance the black heat embossed lines.  The separate dragonfly was fussy-cut ... just the top wings and body.  I then added crystal glaze to the body and let it dry before adhering on top of my card front dragonfly. 

Thank you, Lolly!

Here is a closeup of my card where you can see the schparkle from the Pearl Lumiere acrylic paints and the dementia achieved from doubling up the wings. What's that, Hammy? Oh, yes, you're right, I guess it's not a one-layer card!

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Party Time - Celebrate! Congratulations on your 100th Challenge!
• Country View Challenges: Blues and greens.
• Seize the Birthday: Option topping of sunshine.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Make your own background.

Sorry, Dear!

Since we've reached our twilight years, there's never a dull moment around here. The Mister and I now seem to be in a competition to see who can do the dumbest thing. I did this with my car:

Oops.

So what happened was, the Mister walked one of his bikes out to the street to wash it. It was parked perpendicular to the curb with the front end jutting just a bit out into the street to give him room to walk around while washing it. 

Enter me, stage left. I had to rush out to a hair appointment. The Mister went into the house for something, stopping first to say goodbye to me. In that three seconds, I totally forgot the bike was even parked there. I backed my car out of the driveway as usual, cutting the wheel as I always do to avoid backing into the neighbor's car across the street. I was startled when I felt a bump and heard a loud thump. I quickly looked in my passenger side mirror just in time to see The Mister's pretty bike do a bit of a bounce. *&^*%!

Enter The Mister flying out of the house, his face the picture of abject horror. 😨 I sped away to my appointment, pretending I hadn't seen it.

Ah, c'mon. I'm kidding. I parked and got out to soothe him. Fortunately, my angels were watching over me because there was no damage done except for a tiny plastic part that's easy to replace. Phew!

Before you feel too sorry for him and his bike, however, here's the competitive part I was talking about. A month ago The Mister had another bike parked in the street. Getting in the truck, he proceeded to back up the truck and trailer in order to park it. He inched closer and closer to his parked bike because he didn't want to block our driveway with his truck. A little closer. That's it, just a lit -... thud! Oops. Too close! 

So we can each check "backing into our own vehicles" off our Bucket List of Dumb Schtuff To Do. We're even on that one, except it's funny how he didn't take a picture when he did it! 

I wonder what we'll do next?! Stay tuned! 😏

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

CAS Stencil

Hello Stamplings,

How are you? I hope you've had a wonderful coupla weeks while I've been away! I got home yesterday so it's going to take me a while to get things sorted and get back into my routine. I had an amazing time and I promise I'll have photos of the Retreat to share after I get them up the download!

Today I'm quickly posting cards I made just before I left because the challenges that schparked them are about to close their doors. 

Ironically, the colored panel was made exactly a year ago at Loll's retreat using Lindy Magicals. After wards, I added embossing paste through a Nested Circles STAMPlorations stencil. I cut the panel in half to make two cards.

The upper card has a textured black border off to the left side and the bottom card is centered over a black card panel. The same black was used for both sediment panels made with MFT labels which I'm pretty sure were NBUS even though I've had them for ages. The white heat-embossed hugs* sediment is NBUS from Penny Black's "Good Wishes" stamp set and the white heat-embossed smile sediment is NBUS from Concord & 9th's "Love You Mean It" stamp set.

(*I saw this hugs sediment on my friend Brenda's blog and I immediately had to search for it online. Well, I found it all right, along with a few dozen other little items I just had to have. I told Brenda that I was able to find the stamp and it "only" cost me $186! Hey, sometimes we go down that rabbit hole and that, ladies and gents, is why I continually have so much NBUS!)

Challenges

• CAS Stencil Challenge: Stenciling over a colored background.
• Lost Coast Portal to Creativity: Use some words.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use those snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Use a stencil.

~~~

Before I went to the Retreat, the Mister and I spent a fun week in the Vancouver, BC area. Part of our time was spent on Galiano Island, where you can take a trail to these unique wave-made caves:

I thought you'd love this super cute photo of The Mister. We had such a great time on our trip and beautiful weather. Hammy is in the backpack cuz I was afraid he would get washed out to sea or lost running around in those little hamster-sized nooks and grannies!

~~~

Enjoy your day and the weekend! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click Page Down to reach the end of the post. Click Comments and a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)